1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to trailer hitches and, more particularly, is directed towards a trailer hitch assembly which may be selectively and simply installed in and removed from the bed of a pickup truck.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many different types and designs of trailer hitches are known in the art. I am aware of several previous designs of trailer hitches which have been advanced with the idea of providing a structure which is mountable in the bed of a pickup truck to which a gooseneck type of trailer hitch may be connected.
A typical prior art design is exemplified by the construction taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,992 issued to Baker, et al. This patent teaches a cross structure 23 which extends between and is pivotally supported on a pair of end frames 21 and 22 which are mounted to the bed of a pickup truck. I have found, however, that the Baker, et al. device suffers from several deficiencies, not the least of which concerns the pivotal mounting of the structure 23 to the frame members 21 and 22 by means of a pair of pivot shafts 48 and 39. More particularly, I have found that the pivotal mounting provides a less than fully supportive means for mounting the assembly to the truck. In addition, removal of the hitch assembly is not easy to accomplish. Further, even after removing the hitch-coupling portion of the assembly, the mounting structure remains in the bed of the pickup truck which, in turn, takes up valuable cargo space by reducing the floor area in the bed of the truck to what otherwise might be available.
Other prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. in this general area of which I am aware include: 3,874,702; 3,889,978; 3,893,713; 3,820,821; 3,826,516; and 3,837,675. Each of these structures, however, are either too complex, too costly to manufacture, too difficult for a single individual to manipulate, are not easily removable and installable, and/or require unduly complicated mounting hardware which constitute space-consuming obstructions when the hitch portion of the assembly is demounted.
Furthermore, I have found that the prior art structures in general do not provide good weight distribution of the trailer load over the truck. Most of the prior art structures, in fact, concentrate the stress on the bed of the pickup truck, and fail to provide any means for distributing the stress to other points in the vehicle to provide for greater ease in operation and less wear and tear on the pulling vehicle.